NEW DELHI, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Air passenger traffic in India dipped by 1.1 percent in March this year as compared to last year, the latest data released by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has revealed.
Airports across the country recorded 28.1 million passengers in March 2019, which was down from about 28.5 million passengers in March 2018. This is the first time in six years when passenger traffic registered a negative growth in the country.
The decline was mainly attributed to the grounding of 124 aircraft of the crisis-hit private airline - Jet Airways, and the grounding of 12 Boeing 737 MAXs of another private airline - SpiceJet after an outrage globally against the aerospace manufacturer following the Ethiopian Airlines crash.
The Delhi airport saw 5.481 million passengers in March 2019 as compared to about 6.04 million in March 2018, registering a shrinkage of -9.4 percent.
Similarly, the Mumbai airport saw 3.57 million passengers, down by 16.2 percent in the same comparative period. The airport in southern city of Chennai saw 1.719 million passengers which was a dip of 7.4 percent while Cochin airport in southern state Kerala recorded 830,000 passengers, a deceleration of 11.3 percent.
